


Bilbo's Books.

by ArtyMissK



Series: Poems, Mathoms & Other Things [7]
Category: The Hobbit - All Media Types
Genre: Gen, Tumblr, tolkienreadalong, tolkienreadalong bingo
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-05-16
Updated: 2015-05-16
Packaged: 2018-03-30 20:37:38
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 624
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3950905
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ArtyMissK/pseuds/ArtyMissK
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Bilbo has a secret.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Bilbo's Books.

**Author's Note:**

> Prompt
> 
> The Hobbit read-along (Week 6), Team Baggins, bingo square - Baggins card, Books.
> 
> Standard disclosures apply, I own neither the Hobbit or LOTR. (Well except a rather nerdy collection of the books and movies!) and make no money from any of the following stories.

Bilbo never told anyone about his fascination, but he had one, it was a deep, dark secret that he kept hidden beneath Bag End. Now it isn’t unusual to have a secret, hidden or otherwise, though some are considered different, some are strange and some are not to be talked about, but all other hobbits dear Bilbo knew had fascinations like watching the weather when they had washing on the line, or brewing new ales in their bedrooms, even mathom hoarding was an acceptable pastime.

 

The young master of Bag End however, had a rather unusual and uncommon fascination with…books (not your common hobbitish books about gardening, cooking or flower-lore) real books in the hidden cellar built under Bag End he had shelf upon shelf of books, big books, old books, magic books, story books, poetry books, small books, new books, song books, books on fortune telling, books on stargazing, books on spell making, books about naughty, unmentionable things, books about forging, books about fighting, books about medicine, books written by the big folk, books written by elf folk, books written by dwarf folk, he even had a few wizardish books (they had been exceedingly hard to find!).

 

Now you may think that book collecting is fairly normal and a great way to grow ones intellect and imagination, but to a hobbit hiding yourself away in a book is a most unattractive and unexpected avenue of curiosity, especially when one could be picking berries to make a delicious pie with or hiding in a corn field with a lover, staying in and reading a book is considered to be as bad as trailing mud through your home after searching for trolls.

 

It had all started innocently enough as all things are wont to do; he had been in Bree on business and found himself wandering through the market when he found an old book on myth and magic and was captivated by the drawings and depictions inside.

 

Soon he was searching through every market he could for interesting books and sneaking them home to Bag End – he was considered odd enough as it was, it wouldn’t do for folk to find out about his unusual secret.

 

Each shelf was finished with ornate book-ends and categorized by kind, then date and finally author, of course Bilbo had never read every single book word for word (that would take two lifetimes) but he had perused them at his leisure, or before bed, or with his afternoon tea, even in the bathtub.

 

However a slight problem arose when twelve rowdy darrow invaded his home…and ate his supper (and everything else in his pantry!). They were an incredibly merry, loud, disturbing lot that without warning broke into a chorus of rather rude songs (if you could call them that!) and started stomping about oafishly, hard enough to make his mounted paintings fall off the walls.

 

You have to bear in mind that a rowdy group of darrow stomping about is somewhat akin to a whole heard of horny Oliphants, trying to dance on their hind legs whilst high on old toby, and between the twelve of them they were managing to shake the very foundations of Bag End. 

 

Once their leader had arrived they did manage to calm down a little, while they discussed business and their up coming adventure, but it was not until much later when Bilbo was settling for bed and the last door in Bag End was slammed shut that an almighty crash was heard in or rather under the hill, startling all those within the near vicinity and a few wild animals outside.

 

“Damn!” shouted Bilbo loudly realising that all the shelves in his secret library had fallen down at once.

 

~

**Author's Note:**

> The prompt was books so I wanted to see how many times I could comfortably manage to squeeze the word ‘book(s)’ in.
> 
> Answer: 34 times.
> 
> p.s Myth and Magic, is a book dedicated to the works of John Howe and it’s beautiful.


End file.
